Review of the day

When Cliffs of Dover crossed the line this afternoon, he became the 4^th tip in the last 8, to have traded odds on in-running - and finished third !

Obviously, you do have periods like that - but if the 4 of them had won, it would have been a profit of over 25pts - and swing on the P&L of around 30pts !

His was another hard one to take.

He was settled at the back - which I knew was a possibility - even though I would have preferred to see him stride on.
In fairness, he settled quite well - and when he started to make progress between the final 2 flights, it looked a case of how far.

But alas, it was not be be.
First Irish Roe - and then Equus Amadeus, went past him.

He traded at 1.1 in running - but that ultimately counted for little…

Katpoli couldn’t quite match that, as he only traded at 1.33 !

In truth, he did well to get as close as he did, as he was far too free in the early stages - and his jumping was poor.

With the UK debutantes all running below market expectations, he looked to have only Fanfan du Soleil to worry about.

However, both of them tired up the hill - and Nelson River swooped past.

As with the Doncaster race, I had picked out all the right horses to focus on - but ended up selecting the wrong one…

Sands Cove was the only other tip on the day - and although he didn’t trade odds on in running, he did run very well (for a 16/1 shot).

He moved nicely in behind the leaders - and approaching the fourth last, I felt he  had a real chance.

However, he then started to struggle - before running on late.

We were almost certainly on him one run too early - though he may not be 16/1 next time !

Back over at Cheltenham, there was more frustration, as the rain didn’t arrive in the quantity forecast - and Brain Power duly took advantage.

I would have taken a risk on him on good to soft ground - but there was no way of knowing how much rain would fall by 3:00.

The answer was not a lot - and he duly bounced back to his best.

Earlier in the afternoon, Le Breuil had run another good race - but managed to find one too strong for him in the shape of Drovers Lane.

Le Breuil looked to have been given a great chance, when OK Corral was taken out because of the lack of rain - but he was unlucky to bump into another smart one…

Ozzie the Oscar was yet another to benefit from the ground remaining relatively quick - and his attitude in a battle was too much for Bun Doran.

Frodon put up a great performance to defy top weight in the days big race.

It’s a bit surprising that he’s not won a graded race, because he definitely looks graded class.

Maybe he’s at his best in the deep mid winter, rather than in the spring…

I was right to be wary of the favourites in the novice hurdle - as neither one was placed.

The race was won by Rockpoint, who I was put off because of his rating.

It’ll be a lot higher after today, however !

Finally, Ratoute Yutty was ridden completely differently in the finale - and ran quite well - but had no answer to Sensulano.

I had been quite impressed by the winner when she won at Ascot - and again today, she showed a tremendous attitude to grind out a victory…

TVB.